There was no doubting the guilt of the man on trial in Cape Town last week. He was Dimitrio Tsafendas, the 48-year-old parliamentary messenger who stabbed Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd to death before the eyes of scores of horrified witnesses in the House of Assembly on Sept. 6. Many of Verwoerd's loyal followers bitterly demanded the vengeance of the gallows. They did not get it. After three days of testimony by four psychiatrists, Supreme Court Justice Andries Beyers ruled that Tsafendas was insane and ordered him to be detained in prison indefinitely.
As the...
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